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The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has disbursed the sum of N 92 billion to 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), being a matching grant between January and June 2025.
This was made known by Aisha Garba, the executive secretary at UBEC, who was represented by Razaq Akinyemi, the deputy executive secretary (Technical) at UBEC, on Monday, July 21, at the commencement of a three-day Financial Management Training organised for fund managers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) in the 36 states and FCT.
The training themed, “Efficient and Effective Management of UBE Intervention Fund, a key to Successful Basic Education Service Delivery”, has in attendance SUBEBs directors of finance and accounts, heads of internal audit, and matching grant desk officers on efficient and effective management of the UBE intervention funds.
Garba in her speech disclosed that the commission disbursed N19billion, being the 2023/2024 Teacher Professional Development fund, to 32 states and the FCT, and N1.5 billion as School-Based Management Committee Improvement Programme fund to 1,147 communities in the 36 states and the FCT.
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However, the executive secretary decried the fact that over N250 billion intervention funds disbursed to state governments were still being retained as unutilised in the coffers of the 36 SUBEBs and the FCT.
Garba emphasised that the challenge is not only accessing the UBE matching grant but also the failure of some of the state governments to properly utilise the fund to develop infrastructure and improve the teaching and learning conditions in Nigerian schools.
“I’m glad to inform this gathering that between January and June, 2025, the sum of N92.4 billion, being UBE matching grant, has been accessed by 25 states and FCT.
The commission disbursed N19 billion, being the 2023/2024 Teacher Professional Development fund, to 32 states and the FCT, and N1.5 billion SBMC School Improvement Programme fund to 1,147 communities in the 36 states and FCT.
“While the above achievement reflects a significant gain, the basic challenge remains not only accessing the remaining UBE Intervention Fund, but importantly the slow utilisation of the fund with over N250 billion still being retained as unutilised in the coffers of the 36 SUBEBS and FCT-UBEB,” she said.
Garba said the training served not only as a knowledge-sharing platform but also as an opportunity to align the financial operations of SUBEBs with the UBE mandate and ensure global best practice.
“This edition of the training is another critical milestone in our collective pursuit of ensuring transparency, accountability, and prudence in the management of public resources entrusted to us for the delivery of quality basic education.
“That is why we have carefully ensured that this particular training is expected to cover a range of pertinent areas including the new template for preparing SUBEB action plans, overview of the Nigerian Tax Reforms Act, 2025, financial infractions, violations resulting in audit queries and red flags in the execution of UBE funded projects, procurement procedures, and maintenance of financial records, among others,” she emphasised.
Read also: UBEC rates Nasarawa among best performing states in accessing, utilising matching grants
The executive secretary stated that upon assuming duty in January 2025, her first official assignment was to supervise the conduct of the 46th financial monitoring of the utilisation of the FGN-UBE intervention fund in the North Central region.
This, allowed her to identify some of the lapses associated with the management of the UBE funds at the state level including slow access of UBE matching grant, slow utilisation of the fund, non- compliance with the fund utilisation guidelines, diversion of fund, non- deduction and remittance of taxes, non-compliance with the due process in the award of contracts for the execution of basic education projects as well as non-adherence to the approved action plan.
“In a bid to address these challenges, which I encountered first hand, I initiated the review of the utilisation guidelines, developed a new template for the preparation of SUBEB action plans, and approved various capacity building activities nationally and internationally for both UBEC and SUBEB personnel,” she said.
She emphasised that this modest effort, in addition to the commission’s ongoing engagement to improve practices in this regard, has led to increased access to the UBE fund by states.
